Thursday, October 17, 2013

Self-defence for women

The tragic death of ABC staffer Jill Meagher has left many women
with the thought ‘I walk home alone at night. That could have been me’.

Here are some strategies women can employ to feel safer on the streets if they do have to walk alone:

1.Take a self-defence class.
Jackson, a former police officer, says it’s a good way to impart a
range of safety strategies, and she gets people to dump politeness at
the door and surrender to the urge to kick the hell out of something.

"That's
the most satisfying thing from an instructor's perspective - seeing
timid people come in and, by the end of the session, seeing them just
going flat out, as hard as they can," she says. "Usually you're
plastered in sweat by the time you leave. Unlike different forms of
martial arts, which take years of training to master, and often focus on
specific techniques, self-defence instructors borrow the best from each
tradition and deliver them in a quick-fix package.

"You're
getting the benefits straight away and the most useful techniques can be
taught in as little as 10 hours," Jackson says. Honing in on the three
primary target areas - eyes, throat and groin - Jackson teaches
participants 12 techniques, ranging from headbutting and heel stomping
to biting and groin kicking. "It's important to remember it will take
more than one technique to fend off an attacker," she explains.

"Usually you'll need to use three to five."

2. Be aware. Jackson
conducts awareness training to minimise the risk that participants will
find themselves in danger in the first place. "Get to know things like,
'Is there someone behind me?', 'Where is the closest exit?', 'What
things in my handbag, such as car keys or a ballpoint pen, can I use as
weapons?'" she says.

3. Portray a confident exterior. It’s crucial.

"Strong
body language conveys the message that you will put up a fight, so head
up, shoulders back and look people in the eye - that shows [potential
attackers] that you're not intimidated by them." Such assertions have
science on their side. In a study reported in Psychology Today,
researchers asked convicted criminals - armed robbers, rapists and
murderers - to view a video of pedestrians walking down a busy street.

Within
seconds, the prisoners identified which pedestrians they would pick as
victims - and the choices had nothing to do with gender, race or age.
Instead, they were assessing the ease with which they could overpower
targets, based on non-verbals such as posture, body language, walking
pace and the use of distractors such as mobile phones.

4. Be as fit as you can.
“The least fit are often the most vulnerable,” Jackson says. Most
martial arts classes promote physical fitness as a primary component, so
you'll spend lots of time sprinting, skipping and doing sit-ups, push-ups and squats.
Ten minutes of boxing or kicking will burn up to 586 kilojoules.
"You'll be working hard - so put on the sort of thing you'd wear on a
run," Jackson advises. But she says there isn't a prerequisite level of
fitness. "[It's] offered to people of all fitness levels and physical
abilities.”

Using strike pads, which cushion the impact of blows, Jackson urges women to subvert societal messages and go hard.